The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-10-07

livered.
In the period from 1893 to 1900 the wonderful
plays appear, one or two, or more, year. The
earliest plays are supposed by some critics to
have appeared in 1856, about the same time
that Shakespeare left Stratford.
In 1910 when he 10 In the prime of life, at AZ |
he retires to Stratford-on-Avou, and bctakes
himself-to study and literature no:-resumes |
his old calling a. woolstapler.
The Shakespeare Plays now cease to appear, |
and this just at the time one would have |
thought that VIII Shakespeare had acquir ed |
the learning and leisure to write with increas- |
ed Jest.
In 1911 he appears 40 party to lawsuit |
stratfori with o neighbor.
On April 3, 1916, Shakespeare died at Strait |
ford-on-Avon. In the diary Of Mr.. Ward, vi |
car at Stratford, occurs this entry: ''Shaks- |
peare, Drayton and Ben johnson drank too
hard for Shakespeare died OF fever thus con- |
tracted.''
Ihave omitted reference to q number of ira !
ditional anecdotes, all OF more or less disre-
putable character. as they may not be true
they are however, based ON the same tradition
al evidence as the rest.
The death Of the reputed author Of the Plays
attracted no contemporary attention.
Such is the character. career and exit Of the
man who. we are asked to believe. was the an
thor of the plays which are phenomenon. not
only in English letters, but in human expert
ence, and the like Of which the literature Of no
other country has produced.
An authors inner life 10 usually manifested
In his writings. Is there any other instance
on record OF the life and character Of the indi-
vidual having been such misft with the work
he is credited as having produced9 think
not.
have always felt q difficulty, amounting to
an inability, to bring my mind to believe that,
except byinspiratiOn or miracles man OfShaks-
pere's education antecedents and associations
could have written any OF them, but least OF
all, Macbeth, Hamlet and Lear.
The plays, sonnets and poems, when printed
In one volume, occupy upward Of 1,OOo very
closely printed pages. containing nearly 200
lines on each page.
The contents show not merely that the writ
or was q cultivated man with wide, yet on the
whole aristOcratic sympathies, and a know
ledge of character, especially In the higher
walks of life, so that he could most readily
represent the dlscOurses and manner OF speech
not of butchers, wOolstaplers and farmers, viii
lage politicians and the like, but Of kings,
queens, mobiles, courtiers and statesmen and
also that he had an intimate acqu aintance with
Latin and Greek classical authors, history,
state politics the art of war, natural philosO-
ply. chemistry, horticulture, law, medicine.
the theory of music SO much so, that he was
able, as it were, to play with his knowledge,
these latter subjects, turning metaphors upon
them by use Of words and phrases relating to
them which were unknown to the ordinary
run of people.
The knowledge which the writer of the plays
possessed of the French. Italian and Spanish
languages, the habits OF the people and the
places are also evident.
In Julius Ceaser not an ideal ancient Rome,
but the real one is accurately portrayed.
In the Italian plays The Merchant Of Venice.
Tanning of the Shrcc aud TDo Cent cmen Of Yer
Qua, intimate acquaintance IN small details is
shown with the Italian towns and manners of
the people.
The Comedy Of Errors is discovered in these
latter days to be identical In argument with the
Menechmi of Plautus, then hardly known and
untranslated.
lagos speech, "Who steals, my purse steals
trash, Is perfect pharaphrase Of a stanza in
Berni's untranslated poem. Orlando Innamordfo
In Tiro Gentlemen of Verona Valentine is made
to embark at Verona for Milan, and in Hamlet
Baptista is used as the name of woman. In
another play Bohemia is referred to as having q
seacoast. These things were sneered at as mis-
takes for some hundred years, until one learn
ed German discovers that Baptista is not un-
commonly used as woman's name in Italy,
another German that In the 10th century Milan
and Verona was connected by canals, whilst q
third has discovered that "Bohemia'' former
ly included much larger tract Of country than
1t does now, and did stretch down to the coast.
The above are a few out of many, instances.
What inducement could SHAKESPEARE, the man
ager Of the Globe and Blackfriars Theater have
had to introduce carefully studied details and
dark and subtitle illusions such as. these 1t
was not this out-of-the way knowledge and
learning in the plays that weuld draw, for
very few of those who attended the representa-
tons could perceive or appreciate 1t.
1t must have been introduced for the satisfac-
ton Of the writer of the plays, who must have
been no novice, but learned and cultivated
man. who was inbued and could play with his
knowledge He must have had books of his
own or have had access to the best libraries of
the day. He must have been deep reader and
thinker, q man whose mind was not only well
stored but teeming and trimming over with |
Even IL there were no ..person to |
whom these wonderful plays could be fifty at |
tributed the inference would have been the
same; there must have been some very clever |
and erudite man in the back ground who wrote |
them.
And what is there unlikely in the notion that |
SI,aIo fho buo " orI ful fr;r al
we'll to-do, prosperous, bustling !
man, should have kept a playwriter'' whose |
brains he used to write his plays. Shakspere's |
taste lay In the bringing out Of plays and man |
agement of the stage business. This work Of
selection Of the plays and the actors, the choice
of the caste. and the rehearsals is nowadays one
mans work. especially in bringing out plays
of such length as Shakspere's. This must have
been much more the case three hundred years |
ago. when the business was not so well under
stood, and actors were not SO educated and !
intelligent class as now. Shakspere's object !,
which he obtained, was to make his theater
pay, and make money, get coat-Of-arms, buy
land anil retire to his native place. Play writ
ing was IabOrous, not a paying business.
Four or five pounds was the stock price, it is
believed of play In those days. Shakspere
could not have grown rich. as he did. il he had
employed his labors and energies first In ac-
luiring the learning and literary skill necessary
to write the plays: and, secondly in writing
Them. His contemporaries, Ben johnson and
Bacon, both literary men OF the first order
we're poor men the greater part of their
lives, whilst hakspere, the actor and theater.
grew rich, and lent Ben johnson
money.
No, surely, there is nothing unreasonable in